


Execution Points

by blackwyvern



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: Brother Feels, Existential Crisis, video games - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2015-11-15
Packaged: 2018-05-01 17:04:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5213873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackwyvern/pseuds/blackwyvern
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mikey's feeling guilty or possibly playing too many video games....  So much for all that lab work Donnie needed to get done.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Execution Points

It's not that late, just after dinner; Raph is out with Casey while Leo finds solace in meditation with Sensei. It isn't abnormal for the family to run in different directions and with a dozen waiting projects in his lab Donnie is eager to get to work distraction free.

What he doesn't expect, as he crosses the lair, a decaf coffee in hand (Sensei had started banning caffeinated drinks after 3pm), was to see Mikey staring dumbly at the TV. It's harsh glow outlining him and the game controller loosely held in his hands.

Video games are a pretty normal thing to find Mikey doing this time of night if he's not watching a cartoon or planning a prank but the scene is off. Normally Mikey would be hollering, unable to sit still as he raced, stabbed or flew his way to victory. 

Here he is though, staring blankly at a Game Over screen, an odd look of contemplation on his face.

"Mikey? You okay?"

Startled, Mikey jumps, "Fine Dee!" He says too quickly, "Just fine."

"Mikey."

It's the tone of voice that gets him to open up. Laced with both concern and stern annoyance, Donnie watches blue eyes turn back at the bright screen. 

"Do you think.... they know how many times we've killed them?"

Confusion wars with curiosity, Donnie wants to know, and at the same time has a feeling he doesn't want to know. "Does what, what now?"

Sighing and turning to look at the blinking Game Over text, Mikey huffs with annoyance, "The game Donnie. Do you think the characters know how many times we've killed them?"

"Mikey, what are you talking about? They're bits of code in a computer program, they aren't sentient..."

"No no, hear me out dude. You know like, how that one time I said maybe someone's watching us watch TV on TV..."

"Yes...." Donnie says hesitantly, unsure where this is going.

"Well like, I played this really awesome game and like, at first, I killed monsters like normal right? Cuz that's what you do in games, but then I died and I quit the game right? When I came back the text had changed; the game knew I'd killed this one character and said I went back and loaded my save, because I regretted it and..."

Donnie is sighing in exasperation, the heel of his hand pressing hard against his face, "No, NO I am not listening to you have an existential crisis over a bit of clever programming obviously made to make a player feel guilty."

When Mikey's face falls a moment later it's Donnie who feels guilty. Out of all of them Mikey has always been the most sensitive. Raph may shift through a spectrum of emotion in any given second but Mikey's always been the one most concerned about the emotions of others. Kicking himself for his lack of patience he sets his coffee down in order to sweep Mikey into a tight hug.

"It's okay Mikey. I promise you aren't hurting anyone, okay?"

"It made me think about...when we used to fight the foot clan, you know, back before Shredder switched them all out with robots."

He does remember, he remembers feeling bad about breaking kneecaps and causing injury in self defense. Bad enough to not sleep for a few days, to absorb himself in his lab work, but Mikey? Mikey had taken it the hardest. For weeks he'd barely said more then two words, hardly ate, and spent most of his time shut up in his room.

It hadn't been easy for any of them, and while Raph might happily boast about busting heads with Casey, he knew even his older brother hated to cause any lasting damage. They'd all been pretty happy when Shredder had switched to robots. They might seem more deadly, sure, but it meant they didn't have to hold back and had no reservations about returning the droids to Shredder in several pieces.

"Let's watch a movie," Donnie says, breaking the thick atmosphere of guilt with the promise of distraction.

Mikey nods in quick agreement digging through the box of mismatched tapes, while Donnie settles on the couch, lab work forgotten.

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm serious Undertale trash XD. And what Mikey brings up actually did happen to me. I was playing the game and accidentally killed Toriel because I didn't understand how the game worked just yet. (I didn't get that you had to spare her multiple times) I quit the game without saving and after looking up what I had to do on a Wiki, went back. And then got taunted by a certain sadistic flower. After that I was playing Assassin's creed Syndicate and when I killed some random NPC for EXP I felt GUILTY about it. Of course then the Donnie side of my brain slapped me, but still, days later there's a what if lingering over my head. Logically I know it's silly. Undertale is designed to mess with you head and I swear the creators coding diagram must've taken up an entire WALL in his house. Anyway this started with me thinking that I would not be having an existential crisis over video games, thank you very much and well grew from there. I suspect I may write some fic for Undertale soon, probably Undyne and Alphys LOL.


End file.
